Parliamentary Week Ahead

Parliament, Sunday 11 February 2018 – Parliament continues to fulfill its constitutional responsibilities. Much of Parliament’s law making and oversight work, which includes public access and involvement, is carried out in its committees – the engine rooms of the National Legislature. There are 43 committee meetings and workshops scheduled for the week ahead.

Issues on the agenda for these scheduled committee meetings and workshops include public hearings on the National Credit Amendment Bill, which is a committee Bill, and deliberations and briefings on another 10 Bills. These are the draft Carbon Tax Bill, the Critical Infrastructure Protection Bill, the Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences Amendment Bill, the Extension of Security of Tenure Amendment Bill, the Border Management Authority Bill, discussion on a Portfolio on Justice and Correctional Services Committee Bill on making indigenous African languages compulsory for law students, the Cybercrimes and Cybersecurity Bill, the Money Bills Amendment Procedure and Related Matters Amendment Bill, Public Investment Corporation Amendment Bills and the Communal Property Associations Amendment Bill.

Parliament also oversees government work. Quarterly and annual reports from government departments and entities feature in seven of the scheduled meetings and a wide range of subjects of public interest are on the agendas of other scheduled committee meetings.

Subjects of public interest scheduled for consideration include corporate governance at the Road Accident Fund, the ongoing inquiry into corporate governance at Eskom, payments of social grants, Special Investigation Unit investigations related to the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), the South African National Defence Force’s (SANDF’s) involvement in international peacekeeping operations and a briefing from the Magistrates Commission on its November 2017 reports on suspension and withholding of remuneration of several magistrates.

Workshops scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday are a briefing on the Competition Amendment Bill to the Portfolio Committee on Economic Development (Tuesday) and two Standing Committee on Appropriations Members’ training workshops on Tuesday and Wednesday – by the Construction Industry Development Board on infrastructure oversight and by the Auditor General South Africa on public finance management.

Committee meetings scheduled for the week include:

Portfolio Committee on Trade and Industry: Public hearings on the National Credit Amendment Bill (Tuesday - submission from the Black Sash and input from National Treasury on research on over-indebtedness of consumers; Wednesday - inputs from the Department of Trade and Industry, the National Credit Regulator and the National Consumer Tribunal on submissions received on the Bill)

Portfolio Committee on Basic Education: Briefing by the Department of Basic Education on a status report on schools’ re-opening for 2018, outcomes of the National Senior Certificate Exam 2017 and systemic evaluation (Tuesday)

Portfolio Committee on Telecommunications and Postal Services: Briefing by the South African Post Office on its future prospects, including the South African Social Security Agency issue (Tuesday)

Portfolio Committee on Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries: Briefing by the South African Poultry Association and the Food and Allied Workers’ Union on latest challenges facing the poultry industry (Tuesday)

Portfolio Committee on Transport: Meeting with #UniteBehind on an emergency safety plan at Metrorail; discussion with the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa, Metrorail, the Railway Safety Regulator and the Department of Transport on commuter operations and safety (Tuesday)

Joint meeting of the Standing Committee on Finance, the Portfolio Committee on Environmental Affairs and the Select Committee on Finance: Briefing by National Treasury on the draft Carbon Tax Bill (Tuesday)

Portfolio Committee on Public Enterprises: Inquiry into corporate governance at Eskom: Exxaro (Wednesday)

Portfolio Committee on Health: Briefing by the Minister of Health and KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Department of Health on progress made in addressing challenges relating to KwaZulu-Natal Oncology Services (Wednesday)